Many dinner parties in Westmount and Outremont were served completely with Depression glass. All with the same tint, of course. Potential owners felt it represented Quebecois culture, a misconception that fuelled this popularity, and Nathan was only too happy to take advantage. He soon became its main supplier and he handled only genuine merchandise, staying well clear of the reproductions that soon began to appear. He wanted no part of “wet“ stuff that may have fallen off the backs of trucks.
Yes, Nathan would occasionally place an order with ‘Fat’ Marvin and Muttie if he found himself short a piece or two to complete a set, but only in exceptional cases.
Nathan encountered an interesting situation in his search for the glass. Since it was regularly used by its owners on a daily basis, what would they use if they sold it to him? He came up with a creative solution. Prior to visiting their homes, he would stock several sets of relatively inexpensive dishware which he would sell to the housewives as replacements. He made a profit, of course, but only a small one. He was always fair.
Due to the nature of his business as a ‘fixer’ Nathan was always on a tight schedule. Requests were usually time-sensitive, and he was often given little notice. For those clients who required his special services, time was of the essence, and he didn’t want to disappoint them. As a result, Nathan became obsessed with punctuality. If he told a client that he would be at a specific place at a specific time, that’s exactly when he would arrive. Not a moment before nor a minute after. If he arrived a few minutes early, he’d wait in his car until the agreed-upon time.
According to Nathan, his watch was always accurate. At that time, most people would set their watches to reflect the time shown on the largest and most visible clock in the city, which would have been located either at City Hall, the Courthouse or the main marketplace. In Montreal, it was the Clock Tower in Old Montreal. Nathan didn’t trust it. He preferred the old grandfather clock in the hallway of his home that had been in his family for four generations. Even though he did have to adjust it once or twice a year in order to align it with the Edward R. Morrow show on CBS radio, which he also trusted, he felt that the adjustments he made were simply a minor concession to the clock's age.
In anticipation of a call being urgent, Nathan always had a suitcase packed and ready to go beside his front door, and that’s how Nathan Mayer Eisenberg became known as “Suitcase Nat“ which was a much more appropriate title. Aside from what you might expect to be in a suitcase, Nat kept a small notebook filled with contact information written in a self-designed code. He left it in the suitcase each evening and placed it in his jacket pocket in the morning to ensure he was never without it. He called it his ‘Kleiner Zach’ – his small thing. There could not have been a greater misnomer.
